The WWE held a press event in Shanghai earlier today with Michelle Wilson, John Cena, Jay Li (Vice President and General Manager of WWE's Shanghai office), Paul Levesque, as well as PPTV's Stephen Zhang and Shanghai Expo's Ding Hao present.

Up to this point, WWE had just a one hour edited version of Raw as its only television available in much of the country. The shows will air in Mandarin, and WWE will also debut a Mandarin language website.

PPTV and PPTV Sports will stream the shows on Smart TVs, set-top boxes, mobile devices, and tablets, as well as their websites. There will also be specialized Chinese programming on those services.

On the in-ring side, Bin Wang is now under a developmental deal, the first wrestler of Chinese ancestry to be with the promotion. Often known as Wang Bin, he has been a regular undercard wrestler for Antonio Inoki's IGF promotion in Japan. The Inoki group first reported on his signing with WWE Wednesday night and wished him well. He starts this weekend with the promotion.

In conjunction with the news, WWE has reached a deal with Expo Group as live promoters, and announced a 9/10 live event at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Shanghai.

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Originally Posted by PWI

ROH announced today that ACH would make his debut in Japan for Pro Wrestling NOAH as part of the promotion's Junior Heavyweight tag team tournament, teaming with Taiji Ishimori. The tournament kicks off on 7/10.

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Originally Posted by PWI

Gilberto Melendez, known to professional wrestling fans under a multitude of names but most notably as Gypsy Joe passed away at the age of 82 years old last night after a storied career that saw him appear everywhere from the WWWF to Ring of Honor to Japan to CZW and beyond.

Joe had one of the longest careers in the business, breaking into wrestling in the early 1950 and wrestling well into the 2000s, only retiring after a portion of his foot was amputated. He last wrestled in 2010, facing Yoshihiro Tajiri in Japan for Tajiri's SMASH promotio

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Originally Posted by Observer

There could be a lot of newsworthy events either on Money in the Bank or in the next few weeks since The Wyatt Family, Neville and Randy Orton are all scheduled to return over the next several weeks. Finn Balor has been talked about as well, but that could also be delayed for the draft, when it’s expected that a lot of the NXT stars will start appearing. The ticket sales have picked up in the last week and they are expecting a sellout with a 13,000-seat configuration at the new T Mobile Arena, the same site as UFC 200 and 202.

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Originally Posted by Observer

Lesnar is one of the company’s two biggest stars and his entire aura is based on being legit. To risk him in an unscripted fight is one thing. No doubt UFC is paying millions for it, and maybe the money UFC is paying WWE is worth the risk. But in doing so, WWE is admitting that they are the secondary company, in the sense they’d allow someone to use their top guy to get their own product over. It’s not Ronda Rousey being linked in an angle with The Rock and being put over strong, which only helped her, as Rousey’s next PPV main did 300,000 more buys. That’s not saying it was because of Mania or The Rock, but it surely helped her with a new fan base. This is Rousey being brought in and UFC agreeing to let her lose to Stephanie McMahon.

From the recent Observer Newsletter about the WWE being potentially the big losers in the upcoming Lesnar-Hunt fight in regards to Lesnar's star power value.

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Originally Posted by 411Mania

According to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Big Damo, Noam Dar, Moose and Tommy End are all expected to be part of the September class at the WWE Performance Center if they pass their medicals. WWE is getting aggressive in looking to sign more talent, due to the upcoming brand split and the feeling that so many of the NXT performers are going to be moved up soon. Right now they want experienced wrestlers who they can use on tours as opposed getting athletes and teach them to be pro wrestlers from scratch.

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Originally Posted by Observer

The Steiner Brothers’ new Shoney’s restaurant in Acworth, GA, opened in April. Scott Steiner did an interview with Franchise Times and said the goal is to open more restaurants including near the new Atlanta stadium

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Originally Posted by Observer

Damien Sandow is going back to his old ring name of Aaron Stevens on the indies. He used the name Aaron Stevens prior to WWE and after WWE, while Sandow is a name that he only used in WWE. He’s also done the stunt double act on the indies

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Originally Posted by Observer

David Otunga, who has been working on the Raw pre-show, will be doing commentary with Tom Phillips on Main Event and Superstars going forward

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Originally Posted by Observer

Cena appeared on the NBC show “Maya and Marty” on 6/14. He’s been getting a lot of bookings on NBC shows as it appears the network is looking at building him as a mainstream personality. He’s done well with frequent guest hosting segments on The Today Show

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, only 7 wrestlers since 1978 who managed to win the WWE title never had a reign as WWE tag team champs. They are Sheamus, Mr McMachon, Brock Lesnar, Physco Sid, Macho Man, Sgt. Slaughter, and Ultimate Warrior.

Candice LeRae recently teased on Twitter she will be revealing some big news regarding her career soon with rumors teasing she got signed by Lucha Underground recently.

According to the Observer, recent house show tour attendance numbers revealed Dean Ambrose as a headliner managed to generate the same amount of sales as Roman Reigns for shows. Also based on past numbers, Reigns still has yet to reach Cena-like levels as the WWE's top star.

Alex Riley rumored to be signing with TNA soon based on his recent Twitter activity. Started to follow several big TNA executives recently.

According to the Observer, Triple H currently considers "The Perfect 10" Tye Dillinger the most "underrated" guy the WWE has in development. Also apparently the reason La Sombra/Andrade Cien Almas no longer wears a mask is due to the WWE thinking he's too beautiful to wear one.

Raw for May averaged a 2.27 rating and 3.26 million viewers. That’s down from a 2.66 rating and 3.69 million viewers last year, or a 10.9 percent ratings decline and an 11.7 percent viewer decline. The 2014 numbers were 2.81 and 3.91 million and 2013 was a 2.89 rating and 4.04 million viewers.

Some yearly ratings comparisons to show how dire things are becoming for the WWE in regards to ratings. The yearly decline amount has been around the same range (250k-500k) since end of the Attitude Era except the "record low ratings" shows have started to occur earlier every year for the past couple of years.

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Originally Posted by PWI

According to WWE.com, the Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin and Sheamus vs. Apollo Crews matches will now be on the main card of Money in the Bank.

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Originally Posted by PWI

Officially added to the WWE Money in the Bank PPV Kickoff Show this Sunday:

*Tyler Breeze & Fandango vs. Goldust & R-Truth.

*The Lucha Dragons vs. The Dudley Boyz.

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Originally Posted by PWI

The 6/16 edition of Smackdown did 2,073,000 viewers, up from last week's low of 1,996,000 viewers.

What helped a bit was the Cavs-Warriors NBA Finals game being around 3 million viewers lower than it was last year around the same time.

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Originally Posted by PWI

TNA announced on their twitter that they have re-signed Abyss, Rosemary, Zema Ion and Al Snow.

The 6/15 replay of TNA Impact Wrestling garnered 117,000 viewers after being added to the cable network as a result of the technical issues the night before.

The 6/14 edition of Impact, which ended up airing at 10:50 PM due to weather issues preventing the "live" episode from being sent out via satellite from Pop's master control in Atlanta GA brought in 210,000 viewers.

So, the total viewership was 327,000 viewers, which added up, means Impact was up a tiny amount from 326,000 viewers the previous week.

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Originally Posted by PWI

For those of you that could not watch this week’s Impact Wrestling because of broadcast issues with Pop TV this past Tuesday and you missed the replay on Wednesday, Pop TV has posted the episode online for a limited time.

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FloCombat's Jeremy Botter reported on Twitter that he'd heard that Lesnar would be allowed to use his WWE theme for his UFC walk-out. During his previous UFC run, Lesnar entered to "Enter Sandman" by Metallica.

Lucha Underground Co-Executive Producer Chris DeJoseph was recently a guest on The Ross Report with Jim Ross. He stated that there has been some talk internally about extending the show from one hour to 90 minutes. "[90 minutes] is like the perfect time to get all the stories you need to in, great matches, give matches some time, and at the same time, not overdo it and keep me interested to come back next week." DeJoseph added, "the 90 minutes would be perfect. Have we talked about it? Sure. It's something that we would love to have. But in a way, I enjoy the one hour because it goes by so fast. The next thing you know, it's like, 'gosh, I have to wait a-whole-nother week for it?' And I think that's a good thing to have happen."

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Originally Posted by WWEDVDNetwork.com

Stephanie McMahon - From growing up a McMahon to ultimately becoming chief brand officer in WWE, Stephanie McMahon's story is one of female empowerment in a predominately male oriented business. Stephanie worked through different departments at WWE including the creative team and became one of the most captivating on-screen characters in WWE history.

Hardy Boyz (Match Compilation) - The Hardy Boyz, Matt and Jeff, were born to wrestle, starting in their early days jumping on a trampoline to ultimately rising through the ranks of WWE. Matt and Jeff are the perfect combination of high flying and ground attack that dazzled the WWE Universe. Their matches were legendary, now you get a chance to own them.

The Kevin Owens Experience - Now's your chance to follow Kevin Owens around in his daily routine to find out what makes the "Prizefighter" tick. Listen as he recalls honing his craft on the independents before coming to WWE.

Best of 1997: 20th Anniversary - A look back at the year 1997. It was the rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin, the birth of DX, the summer of the Hart Foundation and the debut of Kane. And who could forget the infamous Montreal Screwjob?

Shane McMahon Biography - Shane McMahon, the fourth generation of the legendary McMahon family, sits down for the first time ever to tell his story.

Roman Reigns - Roman Reigns has burst on the scene to become one of the biggest Superstars to date, but it's no surprise that his historical lineage has set him up for greatness.

Cruiserweight Championship: 20 Years Later - A match compilation looking back at the legacy of the Cruiserweight Championship and its roots in WCW, creating the likes of Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mystery and Dean Malenko.

The Rise of NXT / OVW - In recent years NXT has emerged as an incredible box office draw for WWE with sold out live events and Network specials. Watch WWE's "developmental" system churn out future Hall of Fame Superstars like John Cena, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, Batista, Kevin Owens, Charlotte and more.

Goldberg - Who's next? "The Man" sit down with WWE to break his silence. A compilation of all-new interviews and career-spanning matches.

Possible DVD/BR sets the WWE is currently considering for next year's lineup based on a recent survey sent.

Some other sheet news includes:

Nikki Bella recently revealed on Twitter besides recovering from her injury, Daniel Bryan is currently helping her work on a new finisher in case she is able to continue her in-ring career within the near future. https://twitter.com/BellaTwins/statu...09157514420224

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Ric Flair has never managed to find out what his real birth name is due to the very shady circumstances regarding his early childhood. Believes his first name is Fred but doesn't know what his real last name is. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...hat_his_birth/

In another "WWE Did You Know" type fact, the man known as Vader, Leon White, wasn't the original choice for the Vader gimmick and instead the man known as Ultimate Warrior, Jim Hellwig, was NJPW's first choice prior to him getting hired by the WWF. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...ally_going_to/

Paige ended up being involved in an incident yesterday that ended up with police being needed and her being sent to a hospital.

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Pro Wrestling Sheet has confirmed that Paige was taken to the hospital last night … and the reason she was in handcuffs was because she was detained by police shortly beforehand.

The Las Vegas Metro Police Department tells us police were outside of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas last night for an unrelated incident when they were flagged down for a female who was seen running into the streets. After authorities caught up with the woman she was quickly detained, and officers determined that she needed to be taken to the hospital for undisclosed reasons.

Sources tell us the woman was Paige, but law enforcement was unable to verify the woman’s name due to HIPAA laws. It’s unclear if she’s still hospitalized but Paige does not appear to be in police custody at this point.

It appears that one reason for WWE taking the title off of Roman Reigns may be due to house show business. WWE live event attendance in May had dropped from 5,600 last year to 3,900 this year, which is a 30% decline. While John Cena had been out of action, the A and B house show tours had been doing close to the same numbers. The B shows are usually the smaller towns and venues, and were headlined by Dean Ambrose. On this morning’s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer had the following to say…

“Last month the ‘B’ shows with Dean Ambrose, that were often in smaller markets, were drawing just as well as the ‘A’ shows with Roman Reigns. Roman Reigns is drawing really bad. Before he wasn’t, but now he is, so now it’s an issue. Does that mean that it led to this [title change], or is this just another way to get Roman Reigns more over, because that’s been the goal for the last however long? Time will tell.”

Stephanie says she enjoyed her programs with Trish Stratus, Brie Bella, Lita and Jacqueline Moore. Having the privilege to get in the ring without being a wrestler is an honor to her. She says the decision to get back in the ring isn't up to her, it's up to the 'decision maker.' She says that as long as it helps get somebody over, that's the ultimate goal of her character.

Dirtsheets sponsored by Giving the gift of Becky ... drink it in, everyone:

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Backstage reports are claiming because of his position as a top guy in the company, Roman Reigns will be allowed to appear on the next Monday Night Raw and will actually be 'written off' WWE television until the Battleground PPV. Plans are to still continue with the triple threat match.

Update to the Reigns suspension story according to the sheets. WWE had the chance to write him off during tonight's Smackdown instead but decided to send him home till next week's RAW.

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Originally Posted by Observer

The hot Raw show and the match to determine the top contender in the third hour proved that if the show is good and has a strong main event, the audience will largely stick with it.

Raw did its best numbers since April 11, eight days after WrestleMania, doing 3.47 million viewers, up from the seasonal lowest mark since 1997 of 2.96 million the week before, a 17 percent increase over the week.

Among the reasons for the increase was lack of television competition, with no major sports and nothing on network TV that did more than 7.1 million viewers. Raw had been hurt in recent weeks particularly by the NBA playoffs and to a lesser extent the NHL playoffs, and Dancing With the Stars. Raw ended up third for the night on cable behind Rizzoli & Isles and Major Crimes on TNT and second in the 18-49 demo behind Love & Hip Hop Atlanta.

Besides no real sports competition, the 3rd hour having very little drop off is another big positive for the WWE this week.

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Kurt Angle was on Mark Madden's radio show today and said that he has talked with HHH about coming back to WWE. The conversation took place six weeks ago and he said he didn't know when he was coming in. That's an about-face on Angle who the company had no talked with even though he's been a free agent since the end of January and they wouldn't even talk with him the year earlier when he was a free agent. As noted the WWE has been very aggressive of late when it comes to contacting talent, including people that in the past they had shown no interest in. They are looking to make as big a bang as possible over the next month leading to the brand launch. However, a few of the names who have been mentioned as being talked with have told us that their names on the list are incorrect, but they are people under contract to TNA or Lucha Underground. They were looking at introducing people ASAP, including before the draft takes place. The only names we can report that were called are MVP, Carlito and Stevie Richards, but that's the tip of the iceberg.

The RAW replay on SyFy Friday night did 413,000 viewers, on par with what it’s been doing. As usual, it was the highest rated show for the night on that network.

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Originally Posted by Observer

Jerry Lawler appeared on Cerrito live, a sports talk show in Memphis, and said that because of who he was, he was actually never placed in a jail cell. He said he hung around with the jail staff during his mandatory cooling off period. He said he hung around with the police and it felt like he was watching a live 12 hour police movie. He said he considers what happened late Thursday night/Friday morning a private matter but his fiance called 911 and then hung up, so the police came. He said nobody had any physical marks and reiterated that she was trying to leave and he thought she had too much to drunk and shouldn't be driving. She said it was a shouting match and a lot of what was claimed to have been said actually wasn't said such as him telling her to shoot herself. He claimed she said things that were never said to the police.

Besides a restraining order being placed for the two, the judge for the case stated the next hearing will occur on July 1st.

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Originally Posted by Observer

The 32 competitors in the cruiserweight tournament as well as some alternates are in Orlando right now. They are shooting personality profiles and undergoing complete physicals. The first round will be shot on Thursday and air over a number of weeks in July, with it being a weekly one hour show on the WWE Network, airing on Wednesday nights after NXT.

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Originally Posted by Observer

Former WCW & WWE star Marc Mero underwent heart surgery last week in Cleveland to have his aorta replaced and install a heart valve. Best of luck to him in his recovery.

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We’ve got new information regarding an incident involving Paige and Las Vegas police last night after WWE’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view. After investigating the situation and receiving a tip from a reader close to the situation, here’s what we know:

This was not a segment for Total Divas and there was no camera crew present. Paige and Alberto Del Rio were arguing outside of Cesar’s Palace hotel & casino. Paige tried to run across the street on Flamingo and Las Vegas Blvd. Police were present and Paige was handcuffed ‘for her own safety.’

She was then sent to a local medical facility (either UMC or Sunrise Hospital) for a “mental evaluation” (often referred to as “Legal 2000”), which allows authorities to detain someone who may be a danger to themselves or others. She was not arrested.

Cody Rhodes will get to cross another name off his list as he'll face Jushin Liger for the first time for Northeast Wrestling on 8/28 in Bethany, CT. For ticket information, visit www.NortheastWrestling.com.

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Originally Posted by PWI

WWE Chief Strategy & Financial Officer George Barrios gave a presentation on the company earlier today at the Bernstein Global Future of Media & Telecom Summit in Boston, MA. The most newsworthy piece of information passed on was when the company's current major television deals are currently set to expire.

The NBC Universal deal is currently set to expire the third quarter of 2019 while the company's TV deals in Great Britain and India are slated to expire in the fourth quarter of that year.

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Originally Posted by PWI

TNA today announced the signing of Chelsea Green, who was trained by Lance Storm and appeared in the 2015 season of WWE Tough Enough.

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As seen at Sunday's WWE Money In the Bank pay-per-view, Natalya turned on Becky Lynch after their tag team loss to Dana Brooke and WWE Women's Champion Charlotte.

Original plans had Becky turning heel. No word yet on why plans were changed.

....The only names we can report that were called are MVP, Carlito and Stevie Richards, but that's the tip of the iceberg.

Yessss!

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Originally Posted by Cool King

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Originally Posted by Smelly Meatball

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Originally Posted by PWI

As we reported in the Elite section of PWInsider.com, WWE has been reaching out to a number of former talents over the last several days, checking on their interest in coming back to work for the company once the brand split takes place this July. So, as much as there is talk of raiding the NXT brand for new talents, the company is also looking into bringing back tenured veteran talents as well.

WWE has not officially released any information about the Roman Reigns suspension past that there was a violation, the first for Anoa’i, and that he is suspended for a 30 day period from 6/21 to 7/20. The WWE policy is that all violations are made public, but that the substance involved or nature of the violation is kept confidential. Sources with knowledge of the situation noted to us that this was a recent violation. WWE has at times gotten positive test results and waited months at times to announce and suspend the particulars. Sometimes it has to do with investigating and allowing the talent the chance to explain their actions. Sometimes it has to do with certain timing issues. It is not against company policy, and has been done regularly when key talent violates the policy, to tie up storylines before announcing and starting suspensions.

Current speculation is Reigns failed the test somewhere between last Tuesday and last Sunday with the WWE only making a decision on what to do prior to the MitB ppv itself. Also only made the decision to actually suspended him until yesterday.

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Originally Posted by Observer

There was a schedule floating around the Internet that listed dates for the rest of the year. What we do know is that every date and place listed on that schedule is accurate and confirmed aside from three shows. And those shows make sense given the statement Jerry Lawler made about brand exclusive PPV shows except four times a year ...

For the rest of the year, the schedule lists SummerSlam on 8/21 at the Barclays Center; a Smackdown exclusive Network special called Backlash on 9/11 from Richmond, VA which will not air on any regular PPV carriers ... What gives credence to this list is WWE just took out a trademark for Clash of the Champions, the 9/11 date being network exclusive means they couldn’t lock in the date due to timing with U.S. providers because of the late change (PPV providers want all materials to them at least 90 days before the show); plus the dates and sites for 8/21, 9/25, 10/30, 11/20 and 12/18 are all accurate.

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Originally Posted by PWI

Former ROH champion Roderick Strong will be finishing up with ROH this weekend. His final scheduled appearance for the company will be at this Saturday's TV taping in North Carolina. Strong, 32, has held every ROH championship over the course of his run with the company and with the exception of The Briscoes, was the longest tenured talent in the company ... Strong was so loyal to ROH that when he was also working for TNA at the same time and was ordered by TNA to leave a ROH event to avoid a blizzard that was to hit NYC the night before a TNA PPV in Orlando in 2006, Strong still wrestled on the ROH event and arrived late due to the weather - leading to TNA suspending him and eventually playing a role in his departure from the company ...

ROH Tweeted out the following in regard to Strong's departure:

Goodbye for now @roderickstrong makes his final #ROH appearances this weekend in Concord, NC https://t.co/29yYXAINZ3 pic.twitter.com/J8eoQDIePT
— ROH Wrestling (@ringofhonor) June 22, 2016

It also appears that Quinn Ojinnaka aka Moose, 32, will be also finishing up this summer. We have heard from multiple sources that Moose has relayed he is finishing up with the company at the end of August. Moose, who was backstage at WWE NXT Takeover, is believed to be on the WWE radar.

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Originally Posted by Observer

Starting Wednesday July 13, the WWE will debut its newest creation, the WWE Cruiserweight Classic. It will be only availalble on the WWE Network and will air every Wednesday at 9 P.M. Eastern. The show will last for 10 weeks, and will basically be a 32 man tournament, culminating on September 15. Daniel Bryan and Mauro Ranallo will be the announcers, so that's already a plus. Add to it some of the world's best high flyers in the business, and it's sure to be excellent.

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Originally Posted by Observer

Also announced was a preview special -- CWC Bracketology -- for Wednesday, July 6th at 9 PM EST where we should get the actual tournament brackets and all 16 first round match matchups.

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Originally Posted by PWI

The 6/21 edition of Impact did 304,000, down from the 327,000 that it did on the two airings last week.

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Originally Posted by PWI

Seth Rollins has a small role in "Sharknado 4", keeping a tradition of using pro wrestlers that has seen Kurt Angle and Chris Jericho appear in previous installments of the film series. The new film will debut on 7/4 on Syfy. Rollins will also be seen in the forthcoming WWE Studios thriller "Temple."

There are 4 Sharknado films?

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Originally Posted by PWI

MMA writer Ariel Helwani noted today on his Twitter account that the current plan for the debut UFC fight for former WWE champion CM Punk would be this September at UFC 203 in Cleveland, Ohio. That makes sense to me as it will be a PPV event and it doesn't make much sense to me to debut Punk without trying to use his pro wrestling pedigree to sell PPV buys.

Punk is slated to fight Mickey Gall in his debut.

Helwani wrote the fight is, "Far from a done deal but that's the direction as of this AM. "

Think the original plan was for him to debut by UFC 200 but several injuries and unexpected delays kept pushing the debut back.

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Originally Posted by PWI

TNA has officially announced that Trevor Lee and Rockstar Spud have re-signed with the company.

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Originally Posted by PWI

David Angle, the older brother of former WWE and TNA champion Kurt Angle, plead guilty today to homicide charges in the death of his wife in September 2015. Angle will be sentenced this September, facing up to a decade of imprisonment.

Lucha Underground on 6/15 did 89,000 viewers for the one-match show, which is well below the season average, although slightly up from the prior week. The replay at 9 p.m., which went head-to-head with the Impact replay, did 39,000 viewers, a number well below usual. The average viewer was 48 years old and the audience was 91 percent male.

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Originally Posted by Observer

Prosecutors in Lehigh County have asked Judge Kelly Banach to force Jimmy Snuka to undergo mental health treatment after Banach ruled that Snuka was incompetent to stand trial in the death of mistress/girlfriend Nancy Argentino in 1983. On 6/1, after the ruling, Chief Deputy District Attorney Charles Gallagher has asked to have Snuka committed to a mental hospital, but Banach denied the request. On 6/20, Gallagher filed a motion asking that Snuka be compelled to be an outpatient and undergo mental health treatment for 60 days and then ascertain whether Snuka could stand trial. The judge will rule shortly on the motion

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Originally Posted by Observer

Ray Leppan, the former Adam Rose, not going by the name Aldo Rose, got some bad pub this past week. He was marketing a T-shirt with his mug shot photo from his recent domestic abuse arrest. People began complaining marketing a mug shot photo from that arrest was bad taste, which it was. He ended up pulling the shirts, but then made another mistake of responding to the people criticizing him, saying it was his wife who came up with the idea

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Dave Meltzer is concerned over WWE’s lack of actual drawing power according to the end of his Money in the Bank review. He’s worried that due to WWE’s aggressive need to pull off a large surplus of stars off of the NXT roster to make space for the Raw and Smackdown draft that most of the talent transitioned off NXT “Just aren’t ready for real programming yet”

The two biggest examples of this come in the form of Apollo Crews due to his lack of gimmick and Baron Corbin whom Dave has referred to as “Painfully Medicore” with the only thing going for him is “He’s really tall which is what Vince appreciates in a wrestler chosen to succeed by him”

Another star Dave appears to be the most worried about is Seth Rollins and WWE’s inability to seem to wanna make him a top babyface. This doesn’t appear to be an issue with Roman Reigns anymore as its starting to become more and more apparent that Vince only cares about Roman as his top draw regardless of what the crowd identify him as. He could be a top heel and Vince will push him like a babyface like he would The Rock during The Rock/Austin build to Mania 17

Minor topics also include how stars like Dolph Ziggler work too fast in front of more non-experienced rookies making the matches seem either formulaic or just downright bad.

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins are now tied for 3rd all-time in WWE history for most ppv main event match pairings. Only Austin-Taker, Lesnar-Taker, and Orton-HHH have occurred more times as main event matches. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCirc...absolute_last/

According to a recent episode of the MLW Radio podcast show, the incident regarding Paige getting sent to the hospital started after a drunk couple wouldn't stop heckling both her and Del Rio while they were out enjoying a show at Caesar’s Palace.

Dave Meltzer is concerned over WWE’s lack of actual drawing power according to the end of his Money in the Bank review. He’s worried that due to WWE’s aggressive need to pull off a large surplus of stars off of the NXT roster to make space for the Raw and Smackdown draft that most of the talent transitioned off NXT “Just aren’t ready for real programming yet”

The two biggest examples of this come in the form of Apollo Crews due to his lack of gimmick and Baron Corbin whom Dave has referred to as “Painfully Medicore” with the only thing going for him is “He’s really tall which is what Vince appreciates in a wrestler chosen to succeed by him”

I agree with him on Crews and Corbin.

I'm trying to find Crews interesting but he is currently quite bland, but give the man a gimmick and all will be well. Right now, he just reminds me of a smaller, happier Bobby Lashley.

As for Corbin, I wouldn't say he was painfully mediocre, I'd say he was painfully boring. He could really benefit from either a gimmick change or going back to NXT.

Here's an idea. Turn Ziggler Heel and put him in programs with people capable of wrestling at his level. I want to see him fight Sami Zayn and AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro. Not Baron Corbin for the 80th time.

Ziggler is so fucking stale right now. I'd consider sending him away to spread his wings somewhere else for a little while. The dude just gets nothing by winning and gives nothing by losing. The wick on that candle is out.

Maybe a heel turn would help. I was hoping they were going that way with the groin kick to Corbin that week on RAW. Nope. Cena vs. Ziggler could be a great feud. Could be.

Interesting to note that we've heard there's been communication over the last few days between WWE and Cody Rhodes, who just departed the company. From what we can ascertain, there's been discussion about the company signing him to some sort of deal similar to their Legends deal, which would allow the company to release merchandise, etc. using his likeness. It may be that they had Stardust, etc. material coming out from a third-party (a Mattel action figure, for example) and offered him a deal so legally, they can move forward with that. There's been no talk of Rhodes returning as a full-time performer as he's seeking to work specific, big matches on the independent level and we've heard he's already being represented in Hollywood for potential acting world.

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Originally Posted by Observer

Amid speculation that many former WWE stars have been approached with returning to the company due to the upcoming brand split, the possibility that free agent Kurt Angle could be one of those talents got some fans excited.

Unfortunately for those fans, that will be an unrealized dream as WWE officials confirmed Thursday that Angle is not returning to the company.

The story started when Angle was on Mark Madden's Pittsburgh radio show on Monday and said that Paul Levesque had called him, but that no deal was in place. Although nobody officially said it, the story grew to a point where people said that a deal was done with a start date even listed.

Being speculated around the net that Vince was very likely the person who ended any chance of the talks going further than just simply Triple H wanting to "open the door" for a future Angle return or a checkup on his well-being.

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Originally Posted by Observer

Styles is the other example. Two years ago, when TNA wanted to cut his salary significantly and he was looking out, WWE made him a joke of an offer and he ended up going to New Japan, which really made his career. He got enough buzz that WWE was willing to bring him back, and let him use his name, in January. But he was not planned whatsoever to be a main eventer. He was booked to be low on cards and perhaps work to middle. But the reaction at the Royal Rumble, and even more so at the house shows where he was getting either the first or second best reaction even with almost no WWE television, changed the perception of him and now he’s considered one of the company’s five top regular stars.

Dwayne Johnson was on the UFC Unfiltered podcast and said that in 2004, he was considering going to UFC as a fighter. "There was a time there where I thought, I achieved everything I wanted to achieve in WWE, my movie career is floundering a little bit, what should I do? I was still relatively young, I think I was 34. I thought, oh well, maybe UFC. Maybe I should do something like that." He said he thought it would take two years to be ready, and he wasn't sure how to approach it so the idea fizzled out. He also said he thinks MMA is the toughest sport in the world. Just for the math, Johnson was 31 and turned 32 in 2004.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PWI

Candice LaRae will make her ROH debut at the 7/8 Women of Honor taping in Baltimore, which will be free for anyone who has a ticket to that evening's ROH TV taping.

LaRae previously teased on Twitter about a really important announcement regarding her career was going to be revealed soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PWI

It was announced today, obviously timed for the International Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, that WWE has signed a deal with Lootcrate that will see the company create a bi-monthly subscription mystery box service. Loot Crate were the originators in the concept, which sees those enrolled receive a themed mystery box of items that range from exclusive shirts and action figures to smaller paraphanelia, such as pins and patches.

Quickly becoming the source for vintage historic matches, NWAOnDemand.com has done it again releasing footage of what is believed to be the only DUSTY RHODES - BRUISER BRODY singles match in existence!

The footage from Houston consists of 17-plus minutes of amazing action from August 11, 1978. This is what the independent wrestling experts had to say:

" This is . . . the only singles match between these 2 ever to make tape. 1978 Dusty is loaded with charisma and is in pretty good shape. He even throws an awesome drop kick in this. I enjoyed early in the match Brody's stooging. Dusty's charisma carried this. Their were moments where Brody would turn it on and came across as a force of nature . . . this is a true treasure and a piece of history."

Quote:

Originally Posted by PWI

Former WWE champion CM Punk announced on the UFC Unfiltered Podcast that he would be finally making his UFC debut on 9/10 in Cleveland, Ohio at the UFC 203 PPV:

In an interesting twist of fate, Punk will be fighting at the Quicken Loans Arena, literally the same Arena he famously told Vince McMahon and Triple H he was leaving WWE, walking out of a Raw taping in January 2014.

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Originally Posted by Observer

The announcement of the G-1 participants, blocks and matches will be 6/27, at the Korakuen Hall show which airs live on New Japan World. This will be key, because it’ll show who they are looking at putting in the major arena main events, who the newcomers will be, and also the status of Tanahashi, who is not on the next group of shows through 7/3.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

The original plan for this year’s Money in the Bank match was for Kalisto to be the seventh person when they were going to do seven. Kalisto ended up legit injured so he was pulled from the match and it was made six. He ended up recovering in time that he actually was back in time to have been promoted to be on the show, and ended up in the pre-show match. But the decision was made by that point they’d already focused everything around the six and decided not to put him in. Plus, the feeling was that he’d cooled off quite a bit of late

Some details on why the WWE pulled back plans for 7 guys to be in the MitB and why they didn't care about putting back the 7th person when given the chance.

Apparently, Cena could not see the benefit of Prinze's acting class and he would intentionally disrupt it. Prinze admitted that Cena was tough on him and he does not know whether he ever truly gained Cena's respect.

"I would be running an acting workshop and he would just come in and interrupt it and sort of take over the room. And I'm like, 'hold up, man.' I said, 'let's go talk outside'. So he came outside and he gave me this speech, and I respect his view. He goes, 'look, I may be a neanderthal' and he said, 'but you either got it or you don't'. And I said, 'look, I agree, philosophically, to a certain point.' I said, 'but you can get better or worse at something depending on how hard you work at it.' I said, 'you don't need my help. I'm not writing for you. But they do, so let me do my job. I'll let you do your job and that'll be that.' And it wasn't."

According to Prince, Vince's idea of teaching promo skills was to just let wrestlers do improv but not bothering to teach them the skills needed to make it actually work. Prince wanted to ease them into that style by getting them used to an acting style at first. http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/...reddie-prinze/

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Trevor Mann (Ricochet/Prince Puma) still hasn’t signed the new multiyear deal offered by Lucha Underground. I guess he pretty much has a deadline this weekend to make a decision since

Johnny Mundo vs. Prince Puma is the title match at Ultimate Lucha Tres which will be taped on 6/26, with the stips that Puma has to retire if he doesn’t win the title. So they’ve booked themselves into a corner in the sense either Puma wins while not under contract for next season, which makes no sense, or he loses. And while they can certainly violate the stip since guys here come back from the dead, given what they are offering him, it’s probably not a match that it would make sense for him to lose.

He’s got a significant money offer, believed to be for another four or five seasons, which would still allow him to work New Japan and indies. According to those close to the situation, with the guaranteed money here and what he could make with New Japan and indies, he’d be one of the highest paid non WWE talents in the business, behind only people like Mysterio, the Hardys and Tanahashi. WWE is said to want him bad, although those close to the situation believe they wouldn’t guarantee him anywhere close to what it’s a lock he’d be making on this deal, and he can work limited dates on his own schedule as opposed to fulltime

Spoiler tags used since its related to upcoming Lucha Underground results.

According to a recent Observer Newsletter, concussion research might be shifting more towards wrestlers within the near future due to more wrestlers signing away their brains for research once they pass away. Also the lead doctor who discovered the impact of CTE said it was an area of the study that needed a lot more research done.

Baring anything sudden happening, Observer recently debunked rumors of Natayla leaving the WWE and/or retiring from wrestling soon to help take care of Tyson Kidd. Apparently her contract with the company is not even close to expiring any time soon.

It might actually be better for Ricochet to stay on the independent scene. Between Lucha Underground and New Japan he can continue to have his stock raise. I'd try and talk Lucha Underground into season-by-season deals though.

With the WWE brand split imminent, there has been talk of doing individual Raw and Smackdown Pay Per Views/WWE Network Special Events similar to what they did during the last time they split brands. Until now, that was purely speculation. The PPV schedule that has been going around is legit. So there are apparently nine more PPV/WWE Network Special Events remaining in 2016. Battleground, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series will remain dual branded.

WWE ended up confirming the leaked list as being true on their website in regards to the rumor of Clash of Champions replacing Night of Champions.

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Originally Posted by Observer

Raw is Monday night in Tampa and is the only show of the week with John Cena scheduled.

Smackdown will be taped on Tuesday night in Tampa, with a skeleton crew because a number of wrestlers are laving after Raw for Honolulu.

Shinsuke Nakamura & Finn Balor team up against Samoa Joe & Austin Aries on Sunday's WWE house show in Orlando. This will be Nakamura, Joe & Aries' main roster debuts. Balor has done main roster shows in the past. Nakamura will also be working main roster shows in Honolulu and Tokyo this next week. Asuka's main roster debut will be on Wednesday night in Honolulu.

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Originally Posted by Observer

WWE is taping NXT tonight at Full Sail University which includes Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Finn Balor. Lots of last minute changes based on who is and isn't getting called up. If key people lose unexpectedly, that may be a hint.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

During an appearance with Hannah Storm on ESPN SportsCenter Thursday, UFC strawweight and Dancing With The Stars runner-up Paige VanZant alluded to the fact she's not going to be appearing at WWE SummerSlam this year.

She said that she loves WWE and would love to work with them, but that she's focused on her training for a fight that she announced during the interview. The 22-year-old also said that she declined to be in the Kickboxer reboot because filming would have got in the way of training.

In terms of scheduling, Summerslam is on August 21st while her next MMA fight is on August 27th.

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Originally Posted by PWI

The 6/23 edition of Smackdown did 2,145,000 viewers, up from last week's 2,073,000 viewers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

The Fight Network in Canada announced another new wrestling show, WrestleCentre, which will air at 2 a.m. on Wednesdays after the Tuesday night block of Impact, TNA’s Greatest Matches, and ROH. There will be a special 90 minute debut show on 7/14 before the 7/19/20 weekly show debut. WrestleCentre is based in Halifax.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurt Angle's Facebook page

In response to some of your questions today regarding the WWE, and all of the media fanfare about it the last few days, I want to, once again, say that our confidential conversation never discussed the brand split. A few wrestling sites seem to have put a spin on this by twisting some words around to fit their agenda, something that I have no control over. What I CAN control is my own life, and my life isn't only wrestling. I do not expect to be in wrestling much longer. I AM excited about my future. Thank you.

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As noted, this week on UFC Unfiltered hosts Matt Serra and Jim Norton welcomed WWE Superstar turned UFC Fighter, CM Punk, to the show. Among other things, Punk discussed the differences between WWE and UFC and he talked about how the best talkers in WWE history improvise their promos ...

Moreover, Punk admitted that he would work lighter on talents he did not like because he wanted to avoid being accused of purposely hitting people harder than necessary.

"The people you actually wind up beating the s--t out of, those are your friends. If I was wrestling a guy I didn't like, I would make sure to go out of my way to not f--king stiff the guy because then there's a problem because he's like, 'oh, you did that on purpose'. If I f--king clock my friend in the face or kick him in the nuts or step on his hand or something like that, it's just funny. You can laugh about it afterwards." ...

In Punk's view, the best professional wrestling promos are improvised. While some performers need to be scripted, others should be given the freedom to be themselves.

"I think the good ones, the interviews and the promos people remember, those are improv. Now, [professional] wrestling's just overscripted to death. It's almost like they have a chokehold on it. Some guys need to operate that way and I feel like some people need to let loose and be themselves. You've got a whole room of guys writing for you. They don't know you. They don't know where you're coming from. They don't know your perspective or your character and stuff like that. And if you're out there being disingenuous and saying words that three other people wrote, I always felt that the crowd could tell and then they're going to pay attention to their phones or s--t on whatever segment you're in. So yeah, I was always a fan of just kind of doing my own thing."

On whether or not he was surprised by the news of Roman Reigns’ WWE suspension:

BH: I am surprised. I was kind of hoping he could somehow make a good run at being champion. I think in a lot of ways he never got the fair shake that he deserved. Failing the wellness policy could be a number of things. If it was for steroids or something like that… muscle enhancement, or whatever you want to call it. If it was that category or not. I don’t think he needed it, for one. It is what it is as a policy. I’m all behind the policy. There doesn’t need to be any of that in wrestling. I don’t know if there is a double standard where some guys are allowed to take certain things and some guys aren’t. There’s sort of a thin line between being found guilty and being found innocent. I have no idea. As far as I know the drug policy in WWE is pretty legit. As far as I know, unless someone tells me otherwise, everybody is tested. You have to know you’re going to get tested so what are you ever going to get dirty for? It turns out you get tested and it’s steroids or let’s say it’s something as minuscule as having a toke on a joint at a birthday party. It could be something really small or insignificant. The fact that they sacked him over it is kind of a shock to me. The rules are what they are. In the 90s when I was champion and they started a very serious drug policy. Everybody had to comply. Including Lex Luger and the bodybuilders. They had to comply to it. It was the same thing. You just can’t take any chances. Where it is today and how intense it is. I know that drug test is pretty intense. They test you for everything from pills to… just about everything.

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, while the powerbomb can be traced back to the 1950s and Lou Thesz, Thesz himself might not have been its actual creator due to lack of concrete evidence. Every variation of the move though has an established inventor though.

According to reports, WWE has some early problems with attendance for yesterday's Cruiserweight Classic tapings due to a car accident that occured on one of the main routes to the arena.

After last week's current day strong RAW number following the surprising Dean Ambrose WWE title win, ratings came down for the Monday, June 27th edition of the show on a night without strong television competition.

Raw did 3.09 million viewers, the lowest number on a night without major team sports competition since 1997 . That's the second lowest numbers outside of football season or major holidays, beating only the 2.96 million viewers drawn two weeks ago against game five of the NBA playoffs ...

Viewership dropped 11 percent from last week, showing the big gain caused by the post-Money in the Bank buzz didn't sustain ...

The good news being the hourly drops being very small while the bad news being very weak starting numbers and down by around 374k viewers compared to last week. In terms of historical stuff, same week last year had between 300k to 500k more viewers for hours. Observer's been teasing for a while about next week likely going to break the record for lowest ever RAW show due it being on July 4th.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

As noted before, on Smackdown, they continued to promote the three-way with Dean Ambrose vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins for Battleground on 7/24, with no mention being made of Reigns not being on the show or not being around. Shaun Smith noted that on the WWE page on the Sky Sports website where they always report on WWE news, whether it be storyline or real, such as the Adam Rose suspension being reported, there is not a mention at all of the Roman Reigns suspension, and the main news item talks about the three-way match.

Pretty much confirms suspicions around the net the WWE is doing everything to ensure Reigns suspension gets forgotten as soon as possible and him getting the Orton treatment when it comes to how this might not affect his career as badly as it did for others.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

Shinsuke Nakamura will now face Chris Jericho on Friday’s WWE house show at Sumo Hall in Japan after Bray Wyatt was removed from the tour. Ironically enough, the Japanese commercial for the tour features all sorts of WWE stars except Nakamura or Asuka. Both are on the tour in their home country.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

ESPN has a story from the Associated Press plugging Brock Lesnar being on the cover of the WWE 2K17 video game. The article also mentions his upcoming UFC fight but notes, “Win or lose inside the octagon, Lesnar will still appear for WWE in August at SummerSlam.”

The names announced for the two jobbers on Raw last night that lost to Enzo and Big Cass were apparently a reference to baseball players that are prospects for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

The RAW replay on Friday did 473,000 viewers, up slightly from previous weeks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

Though it had been known for some time, Pro Wrestling Guerilla officially announced Cody Rhodes as the first entrant in their annual Battle of Los Angeles tournament. He is joined by NJPW’s Kamaitachi, Jeff Cobb (Lucha Underground’s Matanza Cueto) and rising European star Mark Haskins as the first announced participants. The tournament will take place on September 2-4.

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Stephanie McMahon says Brock Lesnar is in one of the most unique positions of any WWE star. In an interview with Business Insider conducted last week at the Cannes Lions festival in France, Stephanie talked about Lesnar returning to the UFC octagon while still under contract with WWE.

Stephanie says the UFC and WWE are not competitors because one is competitive sport and one is entertainment. Stephanie says WWE is more like a Hollywood production than a sport, and WWE has an advantage as far as television goes because they can script their protagonists and antagonists.

“UFC, they can make a big star but the second that person loses, they lose credibility, and how do you continue to make that star rise?” Stephanie said. “So I think [WWE has] the best of both worlds and the opportunity to tell the stories in the way we want to tell them.”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cagesideseats.com

To facilitate that, WWE held a conference call with Heyman recently. He was asked about a wide range of topics, but as it is with most WWE chatter these days, the brand split was front and center.

Given his history as a writer and authority figure on the SmackDown, he was asked about assuming the General Manager role or even rejoining the Creative team.

Doesn’t sound like he’s interested in either role, to say the least:

Oh I certainly hope not. General Manager is a role I had a blast with, but I would prefer to stay in the role that I have had for the past four years, which is to serve as the advocate for Brock Lesnar.

I don't think I'm in the consideration to be even close to the writing staff in today's WWE corporate environment. Nor have I requested to be on the writing staff in today's WWE environment. I have a primo gig: I serve as the advocate for Brock Lesnar and I happen to be able to do that on television as well, and I think WWE is best served with me in that role. The job of a writer in WWE is a very demanding job, I don't think it's for a father of two children who are just getting into their teenage years. It is a young man's job: 24/7, 365 commitment for as long as you can continue to match the work ethic of the chairman and that's a daunting task to begin with.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

The return of an ace and the debut of several key talents were the most notable takeaways from Monday morning’s announcement of the participants in New Japan Pro Wrestling’s 26th annual G1 Climax tournament, made during the promotion's Kizuna Road show ...

Kenny Omega headlines the six participants making their first G1 appearance in this year’s tournament. He is joined by Tama Tonga, Yoshi-Hashi, Seiya Sanada, Evil, and Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Katsuhiko Nakajima. Nakajima and NOAH stalwart Naomichi Marufuji are the only outsiders among the field.

The reason Zumbi wasn't in the WWE cruiserweight tournament and instead did the Elite tournament is that WWE didn't get his visa issues done in time. Paul Levesque talked that they would like to give him another shot, and also talked of the cruiserweight classic as being an idea they can repeat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

A match that seemed improbable a month ago was announced Sunday morning as Revolution Pro Wrestling has booked Vader vs. Will Ospreay for their Friday, Aug. 12 show at York Hall in London, England.

The match became increasingly inevitable as the two built interest for it with a social media feud, based on one of the most famous matches of 2016: Ospreay vs. Ricochet from New Japan Pro Wrestling's Best of the Super Juniors show on May 27th.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE star Ryback, who's deal is slated to expire in a few weeks, noted on Twitter he was undergoing surgery yesterday:

Ear, nose and throat surgery today. I have put off some serious stuff the last 11 years and it will be nice hearing and breathing normal.
— The Big Guy (@Ryback22) June 27, 2016

WWE sources indicate there has been no communication between WWE and Ryback since the former WWE Intercontinental champion and the company hit a snag in their contract negotiations. It would appear that Ryback will be hitting the independents soon and we have also heard he is working on a supplements line.

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There have been some rumors over the last week about Hulk Hogan’s status with WWE and we can confirm that he now considered to be back on good terms with the company.

Vince McMahon and other top WWE officials are open to bringing Hogan back in again.

No word yet on how he may return but one source expected him to be eased back in. It was also noted that Hogan still equals money and some officials have been waiting for the right time to bring Hogan back into the spotlight.

PWTorch is reporting that Vince Mcmahon wants to tell a redemption story with Reigns coming back better than ever after being suspended due to violating the wellness policy.

McMahon believes if he creates the story the way he wants to tell it the fans will finally buy into the character, universally. As opposed to the mixed reaction the former champion is receiving now.

While the story was debunked by those with paid PWTorch subs, Observer did tease at Vince and the WWE are currently considering ways to spin the bad news into something positive for Reigns in the future.
Source of the fake news: http://www.wrestlingnewssource.com/n...st-Suspension/

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His return wasn't good from the very beginning. They wanted him to come back as a babyface where he wanted to return as a heel.

He argued with Vince and creative everyday he was there.

He felt super unsatisfied with his return. Says it broke his heart because he had been thinking about his return for years. When he left, he wanted to come back and do SummerSlam, around the time Guardians was coming out. He talked to Steph and Hunter about doing SummerSlam because Guardians would be the #1 film at the box office. They kinda had a snickered and went "Yea, we don't even know if the movie is gonna be any good."

He says they told Daniel Bryan not to sell all of his injuries at Mania and kinda buried the shit out of them. Pissed him off and hated that Shield split up literally the night after making them look like a million dollars. Says that they should've had Shield continue their run with The Wyatts until everyone was sick of seeing them.

He says he struggled early in his career so hard with promos because people wrote stuff for him instead of bullet points. He was always a shy person and public speaking was terrifying to him. He would go up to Vince or Hayes and asked what point they wanted to get across and then winged it and thats when he got good.

He noticed that when WWE films started, John Cena was receiving movie roles and not him. He asked if there was any opportunity for him to act in WWE films and they showed no interest. He then decided to go outside the company and audition and the answer was "You are our property. Get dressed and get to work." He just felt it was unfair to him career-wise and financially and he wasn't content with that and gave them a year's notice.

On his last day with WWE, when he left the first time, it put everything in perceptive. Few people said goodbye and thank you to him. Then security escorted him out of the door. No keep in touch or see you later. He left there with a broken back on his last match with Cena.

Recently on The Steve Austin Show with guest Vince Russo, the self-professed global icon and national treasure, Steve Austin, discussed the current state of WWE ...

According to 'The Bionic Redneck', WWE lacks long range booking plans as well as continuity in storylines.

"There [are] just no interwoven storylines, which carries through the course of a Monday Night RAW where something, a seed is planted at the beginning of a Monday Night RAW and threaded through the entire show. It's just match after match, segment, or in-ring segment, skit, whatever you want to call it, backstage promo."

Austin professed that times have changed since The Attitude Era, where there was a two or three person writing team and agents or producers were not getting involved in putting matches together as much. A lack of trust on the part of Vince McMahon may be the reason for the current setup.

"I remember in the match where I wrestled Bret Hart at WrestleMania 13 in Chicago [Illinois], I was going to pass out in the Sharpshooter in a pool of blood and we go into the finish room and that's all we get. 'Hey Steve, you're going to do the honors today and you're going to pass out in the Sharpshooter.' Didn't say anything about blood. That was to come later. So, we listen to the orders from our leader and I said, 'okay' and of course Bret was over. And Bret was a great business man and a guy I have a lot of respect for. So we walked out of the room. And so, my point is, me and Bret were going to discuss different parts of the match and a little bit of color. And I would cycle back into Vince's room and say, 'hey Vince, are you sure about this finish?' He goes, 'God dang, Steve. I'm telling you it'll work.' I said, 'okay. Good enough.'

"And so, my point is, he gave us a directive, he gave us the finish, and he trusted us to go out there and execute everything. No agent, nobody helped Bret and I with that match. We went out there, we had a little conversation. There was a fishbone of events and the rest was called on the fly and we executed with extreme precision, probably the only real double turn done in the history of WWE that I know of at that high of a level. And there was work on the backend for both of us, but it was trust" ...

"They call it the reality era, but it's anything but reality. And on the other note, going into unknown territory or uncharted waters, back in the day, man, whether you're a fan or not of some of the storylines or angles we were shooting, they were edgy as hell and we weren't afraid to push into those uncharted waters or territories. And if you're afraid to do that, if you're afraid to try to grow, if you're afraid to take a chance as a company, whether you're publicly traded or not, then you're failing to live up to your potential as a company! I mean, because that's what the entertainment business is. If wrestling falls under the entertainment umbrella, people need to push the envelope!"

During WWE’s recent promotional trip to China, John Cena spoke to Inquirer.net about the company’s bright future and which Superstar he wants to work with in this next phase of his career.

Cena has been the face of WWE for well over a decade, which means he’s seen a lot of talent come and go. Cena feels that WWE’s current roster is stacked with more talent than ever and sees a few performers in particular who have what it takes to make an impact with the audience.

“I look at Enzo Amore and Big Cass only because they are so immediately identifiable as characters,” Cena said. “It kind of reminds me when I was doing hip-hop piece of my persona. I like that because Enzo is not necessarily a typical mold of, ‘Hey, this is going to be awesome.’ But even back in his early days in NXT, he caught my attention.”

... As for which WWE Superstars he wants to work with, Cena named his heir apparent, Roman Reigns.

“I know that I always kind of test myself, whether it’s new superstars or established superstars, and I know Roman Reigns has carved up quite a niche for himself and he has all the attributes to be a successful WWE superstar for some time to come,” he said. “I’ve heard he’s good. I’d like to find out how good he is.”

The third and potentially final collection is titled “The Cruiserweight Anthology”. The Cruiserweight Anthology will obviously cover great Cruiserweight matches from the past. This is perfect timing with the Cruiserweight Classic airing a special on July 6th before airing the weekly show starting on July 13th.

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In an update on WWE calling Dean Ambrose the WWE Champion on this week’s RAW, the name change has now been updated on the WWE website as well. The title is now referred to as the WWE Championship instead of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PWI

The 6/28 edition of Impact did 322,000 viewers, up from last week's 304,000.

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Originally Posted by PWI

Brock Lesnar's UFC competition at UFC 200, Mark Hunt, was interviewed by the UFC website about their fight. On being booked against Brock, he commented, "I was trying to get to a title shot, I’m trying to get a top five guy now and make my run for this title. I’m only doing what I’m told, the boss is saying you’ve gotta fight Lesnar I said, “Okay cool, that’s fine.’ It’s not my call then. It’s a fight and his comeback so I’ll send him back to pro wrestling.” He noted one of his nephews is split over who he wants to win because he's a fan of Brock in WWE, to which Hunt told him that it he wants to go to Disneyland, he had better hope Hunt wins.

The New York Daily News picked up a story on Jimmy Snuka being booked to sign at Wrestlecon next year over Wrestlemania 33 weekend in Orlando, Florida. Snuka is now staying in Florida, so if that remains the case by then, the show is local to him. I believe he is being brought in by a vendor, not the event itself.

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Originally Posted by PWI

Randy Savage will become the first person inducted into the Ilio DiPaolo Legends of the Aud Hall of Fame in Buffalo, NY on 7/23 with his brother, Lanny Poffo on hand to accept the honor. The induction will be part of a 20th anniversary show celebrating the original "Wrestling Legends of the Aud" in 1996, which featured a ton of WCW names of the era and wrestling legends, helping to raise over $100,000 for Children's Hospital and the DiPaolo Scholarship Fund as well as pay tribute to the late Ilio Dipalo.

The WWE Network has removed the Tribute To the Troops section. Certain Tribute to the Troops episodes have been added to the Raw and Smackdown replay sections with the recent years of the holiday special are nowhere to be found.

According to a recent YouShoot interview trailer with Hornswoggle, when The Rock made his return to the WWE in 2011, Rock thought Hornswoggle was a "Make A Wish" kid waiting to meet him backstage and not an actual wrestler hired by the WWE.

Chris Jericho announced he is currently working with PodcastOne on a new podcast network called The Jericho Network. Konnan was revealed to be the first podcaster for this network when it debuts in the near future. https://www.instagram.com/p/BHQSgr2jeeT/

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Seth Rollin's 2nd WWE title reign is currently considered the shortest ever in WWE history according to the WWE's official record books. Bryan's WWE reign that lead to Orton's cash-in was the previous record at 4 minutes.

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, Seth Rollin's 2nd WWE title reign is currently considered the shortest ever in WWE history according to the WWE's official record books. Bryan's WWE reign that lead to Orton's cash-in was the previous record at 4 minutes.

I thought Andre The Giant's reign was the shortest so I checked it out and it turns out that it is considered the shortest, with Rollins' second reign now being second shortest after taking that spot from Yokozuna's first reign by six seconds.

So with that, I also don't know where they're getting Bryan's reign being the "previous record" from too. According to WWE.com, his reign is nowhere near the shortest reign.

I thought Andre The Giant's reign was the shortest so I checked it out and it turns out that it is considered the shortest, with Rollins' second reign now being second shortest after taking that spot from Yokozuna's first reign by six seconds.

So with that, I also don't know where they're getting Bryan's reign being the "previous record" from too. According to WWE.com, his reign is nowhere near the shortest reign.

WWE is aggressively scouting indies right now. The key thing they are looking for is people who they consider coachable. That’s the current key phrase. I guess that means athletic people who are good listeners. They are also going to be very strict when it comes to background checks. Prospective WWE talent should sure to clean out social media accounts of anything that could be embarrassing

They are also specifically targeting talent from Lucha Underground that can contractually leave.

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Originally Posted by Observer

The Balor Club idea seems to have been dropped with Balor’s impending move to the main roster. WWE had applied for a Balor Club trademark, which would be a group with Balor, Anderson and Gallows, playing off Bullet Club. Instead, it looks like they are just going to be The Club. The WWE dropped an attempt to register Balor Club for marketing purposes on 6/22. Evidently Baylor University had opposed the name. As noted before, they had also attempted to register Legion of Doom to be the name for an NXT group with Paul Ellering, Gzim Selmani and Sunny Dhinsa. They also dropped that and are staying with Authors of Pain

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

The update on Orton is that he’s about a month or so away from training for a return. The original time line was that he was going to be in Orlando in mid-June, train a few weeks and be ready right about now. His shoulder is still not 100% although it is improving. This was the third operation on the same shoulder and they did an extensive surgery with the hope it will fix the problem so it wasn’t as simple a recovery as in previous operations. There is still a neck issue but the doctors told him a few months ago he doesn’t need the neck surgery right now

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

UFC had a conference call today for UFC 200. Even though both Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier were there, Brock Lesnar was the guy who got asked the most questions. When asked about Stephanie McMahon's comments on WWE not supporting his fight necessarily, he said, "I don't care what she says." When he was asked what affect it would have on his drawing power if he lost, he said, "I really don't give a shit."

"This isn't about my fans. This is about me living my life, being the person I want to be. Granted, without the fans and everything, none of us would be able to do this. I get that. But I don't sit up at night wondering, `Is my drawing power gonna be hurt' or 'Are my WWE fans gonna tune in and watch me do this.' I don't give two shits about that. This is about me. I want to get in there and be an athlete again. That's what this is about."

Quote:

Bret “The Hitman” Hart spoke about Curtis Axel’s current role and push in WWE yesterday on the latest episode of The Sharpshooter Podcast on Bret Hart Radio.

On what Bret thinks of the current push of Curtis Axel in WWE:

BH: I wish they would do so much more with Axel. Curt’s kid. It’s just such a shame.

On why he thinks WWE doesn’t play off of Curtis’ legacy as Mr. Perfect’s son more:

BH: I’ve never understood it from the beginning. Even the name McGillicutty or whatever that gimmick was. I just seems almost like impossible odds to turn that in to any kind of successful storyline. What do you do with that? It never made a lot of sense to me. I think that he’s really a wasted talent. I think he’s a real talent. He’s every bit the athlete and the performer that his Dad was. I just always thought that he was a little bit like Cody Rhodes where it’s like they never quite gave him the right things to book him to be the star that he was.

New names announced for Battle of Los Angeles are Ricochet, Matt Riddle, Chris Hero and Mark Andrews.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

Chris Jericho talks about the Jericho Network, which debuts on 7/7 on PodcastOne. Konnan will have a regular show and the plans are 10-12 shows per month. His goal is to have six strong shows and six shows that will be given a chance to make it. He said it won't affect his show and he's not going to be a guest on the other shows. Konnan will be a regular as noted yesterday.

Recent update to Jericho's new podcast network plans.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PWI

Jim Cornette went absolutely off on Vince Russo revealing that he contacted Pop TV President Brad Schwartz offering his services as a consultant to explain why TNA isn't getting the ratings that Schwartz had been "sold on" as well as having previously contacting Destination America with a similar offer. Cornette's rant closes out his "Jim Cornette Experience" podcast episode at www.MLW.com and is 40 minutes of never-ending bile and venom the likes of which has rarely been seen on Planet Earth, closing with Cornette announcing he has pulled out of a Wrestlecade appearance this November in North Carolina because Russo is also booked on the event, warning Russo that he did so because he never wants to be in the same place as Russo ever again and next time, Russo had better be the one to pull off an event because if not, well, you can imagine what might happen (and if you can't, well, Cornette explicitly lays it out).

Quote:

Originally Posted by PWI

Ring of Honor announced that CMLL star Struka Jr., who has also worked for New Japan Pro Wrestling in the past, will debut at their 7/16 event at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA, facing Kaimatachi. They've wrestled in Mexico in the past. ROH has been working to build a relationship with CMLL similar to the one they currently have with NJPW and this is the first step in that direction.

There had also been discussions of bringing in Dragon Lee for the Philadelphia card, but injuries will prevent that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PWI

WWE Network News has revealed three collections that will be added to the WWE Network on Friday . One will be The Classic Content Collection for the month which will feature all the recent Nitro episodes. Another is a collection of the "Colorful Characters" in professional wrestling. And there will be a collection "The Cruiserweight Anthology" surrounding The Cruiserweight division.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

Jimmy Snuka was booked for the WrestleCon convention in conjunction with WrestleMania in Orlando. Don’t know if words have been invented to properly categorize that. What are they thinking booking a guy who has been indicted on a murder charge and isn’t standing trial only because of the belief he is not mentally capable? The Lehigh Valley Prosecution office is looking into this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Observer

Jim Myers, 79, better known as George “The Animal” Steele, is scheduled for major kidney surgery on 6/29. He has started this surgery twice and they stopped. On 12/15, he was scheduled for the surgery to clean out his kidneys, but he flatlined while in surgery, so they dropped the operation and were able to bring him back. On 5/26, essentially the same thing happened. He didn’t flatline, but while doing surgery, it became clear if they continued he wouldn’t survive so they stopped and closed him up. He was essentially told if the same thing happened a third time, it would not be good

Quote:

He then says that a writer who was there at the time told him that they were in a writers meeting with Vince McMahon when the Mexicools gimmick was created. A writer suggested the name, stating that they should be cool Mexicans and Vince thought that since his landscapers were Mexican, that they should come out on ride-on lawnmowers.

Wacky Vince story from back in the day regarding the origins of the Mexicools name according to Konnan.

Bobby Heenan recently revealed he now uses Twitter with his account name as @RealBobbyHeenan and confirmed by others to be him tweeting and not PR people.

According to the Observer, ROH's Moose went from a likely lock to being signed by the WWE to now likely getting signed by someone else. Main issue appears to be money with TNA offering the most and WWE no longer feeling the need to rush to grab him due to some possible PR issues. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmKr18rWIAEQ_3h.jpg

In a "WWE Did You Know" type fact, the origin for Goldberg's "Who's Next" catchphrase came from a meal Goldberg and others with him were having at a restaurant. They were trying to come up with a catchphrase for his character before a waitress interrupted their conversation by asking "who's next?"